Interview with Seven-time NCAA finalist, multiple-time national gold medalist and 2012 Olympian

Sam Mikulak 

 

 

Ocean Pleasant: What inspires you on a daily basis?

Sam Mikulak: All right, so, every day I wake up and I have written on my ceiling a bucket list. The first thing on my bucket list is to be the world’s greatest all-around gymnast, which would mean winning a world championship or Olympic gold medal for all-around competition. Every day I wake up and I see that above me as the first thing I see and I try to mold my day around that. That’s where I find my daily motivation to get in the gym and work hard.

 

OP: What does a normal day look like for you?
SM: A normal day now is going to class, going to practice, then working

on Maté Bros—I have an herbal tea company—then off to bed. 

 

OP: Where do you seek motivation, either for your tea company or as a gymnast? 

SM: For Maté Bros I think the motivation just comes in doing something I love because I’ve been drinking this tea for over seven years now and

I feel the benefits that help me perform at the highest level come from drinking this herbal tea. From there I was just like, “If this has helped me so much why can’t I just give this to everyone else and help them as well?”

 

When it comes to gymnastics it’s all about dreaming and accomplishing your goals and if you can’t live up to the expectations you try to reach for, then you got to find something else that’s going to help. You’re always pushing to the next level and when you accomplish those goals you feel like all your hard work is paying off and I feel that’s what we live for. 

 

OP: Can you name an obstacle you've faced and overcome, and can you share any wisdom around what that was like for you?

SM: Probably the biggest obstacle I had in my gymnastics career was a year before the Olympics came I broke both my ankles. Usually the first thing that comes into your mind after an injury is not the pain that you have, but the possibility of missed competitions that you could have leading up to the Olympic Games to get some international exposure. I missed out on a lot of competitions. The only thing I could really do was keep my mind at ease [and] keep working hard.

 

When I broke my ankles, my two best events were floor and vault, and my worst events were rings and pommels. Breaking my ankles gave me time to not tumble and vault as much, and to work on my pommels and rings, and I made my weaknesses more my strengths and became more of an all-around gymnast. In a way it was a blessing in disguise to have had both of my ankles broken because maybe I wouldn’t have made the team had I not pushed more on pommels and rings. 

 

OP: That’s incredibly powerful.

SM: You’re making me blush. 

 

OP: I mean, I can't even imagine that sort of injury, but then having all of that pressure both with gymnastics and growing your company. That’s an incredible story.

SM: Thank you.

 

OP: Can you define success by your own terms? How do you know exactly when you’ve succeeded? 

SM: I set small goals that lead up to bigger goals. I think you always have to reward yourself by making the small goals very eas to accomplish so that every small step you feel like you’re succeeding until you reach those big goals that you’ve been planning for over four years. I make sure I know exactly what it is I’m trying to accomplish. I dream big and I make it very well known to everyone. Shooting for the big stars is really what’s going to lay out the path

for you. 

 

OP: If you could say one thing to everyone on the planet, what would it be? 

SM: “Do what you love and do it well.” 

 

OP: Tell our readers why Maté Bros is the best tea around.

SM: My herbal tea is yerba mate and it’s like an infusion of lemon and sugar, so it tastes like an Arnold Palmer and it gives you energy because yerba mate actually has more health benefits than green tea. Essentially what I’m coming out with is a healthy energy drink that actually tastes good.